About a year ago last month, a good friend of mine and the brainchild behind Ellen Eats Well, went on what we called a "Lady Date Night" on the Upper East Side. We went to go see Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York speak. Ellen thought I may be interested in hearing him speak because she knew that my family had been featured once on HONY. Brandon spoke about his new children's book but more importantly he spoke about how he got started on his journey into being "the guy behind Humans of New York".

For both Ellen and I, his talk seemed to speak to us at the exact point we needed to hear it in our lives. We left that night saying that it was a "dreamer seminar" for US! Catered to us and said and spoken in a way that completely inspired us. That night we made a promise to keep each other accountable to our 'passion projects'; for me it was photography and for Ellen it was her cooking blog. I think back to that night often as I look back on the last year. I am blown away by the people I've met and have had the honor to capture their story.

Fun Fact! Brandon happened to capture our family's very first family photo two months after my son was born. Brandon was/is one of the most charismatic people I have met. There's a reason why people open up to him with some of their deepest emotions. He's incredibly inspiring and even after photographing my family 6 months before, he remembered our conversation that day as if it was yesterday.

Below is our very first family photo courtesy of HONY. Feel free to click on the photo to be directed to the HONY website.